Victor Jara is a legendary Chilean poet and singer who fought to free the long-suffering Chilean people from oppression. Having become famous for his compositions among ordinary people, Hara caused anger and anger among those in power. After the Pinochet junta came to power, the singer was thrown into a concentration camp, where his life was cut short.
From the biography of Victor Khara
The future poet, singer and political activist was born in the small Chilean town of Chillian Viejo on September 28, 1932. Victor's parents were ordinary peasants and worked in the fields of large landowners. They worked from dawn to dusk, but this did not bring prosperity to the family. There was barely enough money for food and basic necessities for life. Hara's father was a drinker. And this influenced the atmosphere in the family.
Victor developed a passion for music at an early age. He was taught by a village teacher to play the guitar and take the first chords. He also introduced the future singer to the layers of folk culture.
Hara went to school against the will of his father and at the insistence of his mother: she did not want to see her son as a farm laborer. At school, Victor showed himself to be a capable student. But most of all he liked to participate in the sketches that the guys acted out after school.
However, soon the mother and children moved to Santiago - it was necessary to treat Victor's older sister. The mother worked as a cook in a restaurant, and the children, whenever possible, helped her earn money. Over time, the mother managed to open her own tavern where workers could eat.
After school
After graduating from school, Hara entered the school, choosing the profession of an accountant. But he soon got bored with accounting. He was increasingly drawn to music. When his mother died of a stroke, Victor dropped out and got a job as an apprentice in a furniture workshop.
In 1950, Hara decided to take another crucial step - he entered the seminary, believing that the priesthood would make him a useful member of society. Two years later, Victor changed his mind and left the path of religious faith: he did not want to permanently abandon relationships with women.
When Victor was drafted into the army, he was doing military service at an infantry school. Having paid a debt to the state, Hara worked in the ambulance service as a simple orderly. Then he was taken to the university choir. This is how Victor's career in music began.
Creativity and destiny of a man with a guitar
Hara did not want to be engaged in amateur performances and in 1956 he entered the theater school at the university. He dreamed of becoming a professional artist. The famous poet Pablo Neruda became one of its inspirers.
At first, Victor tried his hand at interpreting folk songs. But later he began to compose his own compositions. He dedicated them to freedom fighters - Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Salvador Allende. Performing his songs in small bars, Hara became one of the country's most popular singers. He began to be called "the man with the guitar."
Conservative journalists began to accuse Victor of adherence to communism, believing that he incited the people to undermine the foundations of the state. However, with the coming to power of the Allende government, the situation changed: Hara was proclaimed the singer of the renewed country.
The heated situation in Chile led to a civil war that ended in 1973 with a military coup led by Pinochet. Salvador Allende was killed. Terror began against his supporters. Thousands of activists were driven by the junta's accomplices to stadiums that became a kind of concentration camps.
Among the prisoners of the new regime was Viktor Khara. He was tortured for a long time, after which he was mercilessly killed. The body of the Chilean folk singer, riddled with bullets, was found on September 16, 1973 in one of the villages on the way to the stadium. Subsequently, the examination established that Viktor Khara was first killed by a shot in the head, after which a burst from a machine gun was fired at him.
